.6 Part Three and Part Four
My idea for Part Three was always that human civilization would become capable of interstellar travel under the order established at the end of Part Two, whether that would be the Republic of Earth or the anti-empire. They would encounter alien civilizations and various other challenges. At some point far in the future, perhaps a thousand years after the present, they would encounter an enemy greater than any other and also discover devastating truths about the history of humanity and the nature of reality. As I have started to explain previously, my old idea for this was that humans and their allies would be manipulated by the Ayanamuz, a faction of the Seoaisaoei remnants, into fighting the other factions. This idea should be changed and improved upon. Indeed, thinking about it now, it may be too similar to my new ideas for Part Two.
It may be difficult to imagine this kind of Star Trek-like setting without a united Earth government. Perhaps it is possible for such a system to eventually arise from the anti-empire while still operating on the same principles, but I have an idea of how private insurance-based services could achieve this. While watching Star Trek, I thought the Prime Directive was a great idea and that space exploration under the Republic of Earth should operate with an even more extreme policy, not so much to protect primitive aliens from interference, but to protect humans and Earth from the dangers they might encounter. If there were a planet with even slightly Earth-like life on it, no human should be allowed to go near it because of the risk of pathogens against which humans have no immunity. Going on an Earth-like planet without a sealed suit like they always do in Star Trek would only be allowed after that planet has been studied as much as Earth has and its dangers as well understood. There should be no manned mission to any location until as much as possible has been learned using unmanned probes and no probes should be sent until as much as possible has been learned with telescopes. If it is possible for insurance-based services to insure against the dangers to all humans which might result from space exploration, then they would enforce these rules and be able to decide just how strictly they should do so. They would be the authority governing they exploration of stars and planets and managing relations with alien civilizations.
I was never able to decide any details of Part Three beyond this until I began to imagine a Part Four. When I played Pathfinder First Edition, a roleplaying game based on Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition, I became rather obsessed with it and was constantly creating new character ideas. Later, I was unable to play with the group I had been playing with and when I found a different community of people who played these kinds of games, none of them would run Pathfinder. It was mostly Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, which I find very boring in comparison, as well as other systems which I did not feel would be worth learning and certainly not worth dedicating nearly as much thought to them as I did to Pathfinder, especially since we were only doing one-shots for the most part. I decided I would try running Pathfinder if no one else would. It turned out that I was not very good at being a gamemaster and it seemed that not many were even interested in playing Pathfinder. Part of the problem may have been that I created my own scenarios which would take place in my own setting, as well as some homebrew rules, instead of using premade content. Of course, I almost immediately tried imagining how this setting could exist in the same reality as my story. To do this, I needed to decide how the generic medieval-ish fantasy elements, like elves, dwarves, and wizards can exist in my story. A player joining one of my games could potentially choose any race or class, so I wanted to find a way for all of them, or at least them most common ones, to fit. As a gamemaster, I could choose to not include things in my setting, but I did not want disallow any character creation options because I would not like it if a gamemaster disallowed one of my characters which I was enthusiastic about. The process of trying to figure this out lead to some developments in the setting and story. More recently, I have seen discussions about how the various editions of Pathfinder and D&D are not very good systems and how people often try to adapt them for things which they are not suited for while being ignorant of better systems. I looked into GURPS after hearing favorable things about it, but being a Generic Universal Roleplaying System, there is no reason to use the races, classes, and monsters of Pathfinder as starting places for developing the setting. However, for this same reason, GURPS might be great for creating a game set in the time of Part Two.
I decided that the various playable humanoid races would be humans who were moved to other planets in ancient times by the Seoaisaoei at the height of their power. They did not want Earth life to be subject to the risk of extinction by being confined to one planet. It is not that the Seoaisaoei were so benevolent, but that they were so powerful that terraforming planets and perhaps moving them to a different orbit or even creating new ones by gathering together huge amounts of asteroids, is not an excessively expensive thing for them to do, no more than humans’ efforts to protect endangered species are for them. Elves would be humans who were put on a planet with less gravity than earth, so they became tall and weak. Dwarves were put on a planet with more gravity and became short and tough. They might prefer to live underground because harsh conditions on the surface. The small races could be related to Homo Floresiensis. While I did not imagine the Seoaisaoei removing entire populations from Earth, the truth about the disappearance of apparently extinct human relatives being that they were abducted by aliens is a funny thought.
Some races were created by the Seoaisaoei for their purposes. Pathfinder orcs, with their superhuman strength and deficient mental abilities, were humans modified for the purpose of manual labor in Earth-like environments, as the Seoaisaoei have always used beasts of burden rather than machines. Drow, duegar, and svirfneblin were selected among elves, dwarves, and gnomes to be trusted servants of the Seoaisaoei and were given innate magic powers for that purpose. They are suited for dark environments so that they can work on spaceships which save energy by having minimal lighting. I cannot think of any practical reason why the Seoaisaoei would create the races which are human-shaped animals, such as catfolk, ratfolk, and grippli. I have always disliked this kind of thing and have only been interested in these Pathfinder races for the purpose of creating mechanically optimized characters while ignoring aesthetics. Dexterity bonuses are always good. Perhaps they can be reimagined so that they appear as human as elves and dwarves do while keeping their qualities and maybe only a subtle resemblance to the respective animals.
I decided that all races would have nearly the same lifespan and development cycle as humans. I was not confident in my ability to imagine the realistic implications of elves living for hundreds of years, nor did I have an explanation for how they gained the ability to do so.
Humanoid aliens and Earth-like life on other planets are obviously impossible, except through a scenario such as the one I described here. The discovery of humans on other planets would be a huge revelation about the past and would foreshadow Part Three. There would be evidence that life on those planets is less than a hundred thousand years old and is the same age as evidence of alien activity on Earth.
When deciding how this medieval-ish world would come to be in the futuristic setting of my story. The obvious idea was that the massive interstellar war in Part Three nearly destroyed all of human civilization. That there are any survivors at all now living in this more primitive state is due to the success of the protagonists. At first, I thought my Pathfinder scenarios would take place on Earth so far after the time of Part Three that nearly all evidence of advanced civilization is no longer visible on the surface. The players could find this evidence and assist efforts to explore and map the planet which would reveal landmasses they would recognize, but their characters would not.
I later decided that I did not like the idea of the Republic of Earth, which I had not yet rejected at the time, being destroyed. Instead, the Republic, and now the anti-empire, would be weakened and retreat from much of its territory, but it will continue to exist in some form. My games would take place on a planet settled by the human and humanoid ship crews who escaped the mind control of the Ayanamuz during Part Three, with the help of Alan and Sophia, for those who read that paragraph which I recommended not reading. They were pursued by the enemy, which would be the Burzghash, as well as the Ayanamuz. They stopped at a star system where they fought and destroyed the enemies. They realized that there only option was to stay where they were and hide. The exact reasons for this need to be figured out, but perhaps they were unable to leave without encountering more enemies and they did not know whether there is any friendly territory left not occupied by the enemy or by humans under their control. The kind of technology I imagined would exist in Part Two would be far more advanced in this time. The ships would have the equipment to manufacture anything they need, including more of that same equipment. I needed an explanation as to why the civilization in my Pathfinder setting is not nearly so advanced. Referring to the way Sanwe-latya works and considering that their technology would be operated using it, I imagine that destroying and hiding nearly all of their technology, after terraforming a planet to make it Earth-like, would be necessary for them to hide from their enemies who were extremely powerful Samatiri and would be able to perceive those devices. Losing all that technology would obviously be a huge disadvantage and they would be defenseless if they were discovered. They would need to be absolutely certain that they would stay hidden by doing this and that they would have no chance of winning even if they kept their equipment.
However, some things would survive and would be legendary artifacts which the players can find and use. Powerful Samatiri would be able to form a sufficiently strong connection with certain items would be able to prevent those from being perceived by the enemy. For the most part, those items would be the Istarcanor’s knives as their purpose is for their owners to make such a connection with them. Other things would be rediscovered after being hidden. One of these things would be the Sword of the Republic, which is the ornamental sword made by the Istarcanor’s armorers I mentioned previously. In this medieval-ish setting, the sword would not be just an ornamental and symbolic object and could be used by a player when it is found. This sword would appear in many cultures’ myths about the time before the settling of the planet.
My games would take place thousands of years after this and no one has a completely correct idea of what happened at the time the planet was first settled and before. Perhaps staying hidden also required them to not keep written records. Every culture would have a different myth about the advanced civilization which existed in the past and about the evil forces which destroyed it and brought about the primitive and comparatively miserable condition people live in now. This myth would inform and be informed by what that culture believes is good and bad. These myths are always so important because everyone would know from the beginning that they will not stay hidden forever and they will need to regain the power to face the enemies.
When I first thought about creating my own Pathfinder campaign, the idea I had was that there could be two hostile factions at war and neither would be obviously good or evil. The players can side with either one and help bring it to victory. This will require extreme violence against people who are not obviously bad. They would also have the option of finding a less violent resolution which is mutually beneficial for both sides. This will be more difficult and require identifying who the truly evil people are and fighting them. Later, when I started to create this setting, I imagined there would be two major states in the region of the planet where the players would be. Elves actually exist in this world, so I of course used Quenya names, which are Mirimanor, meaning “free land” and Ainaranie, meaning “holy kingdom”. I changed this to Ainarania because it sounds better and also happens to be palindromic. These would each exemplify a corrupted version of one of the two ideals represented by the “L” shapes of the Republic of Earth’s symbol, which are liberty and clearly defined moral purpose perused at all cost.
Ainarania is a totalitarian theocracy formed shortly after the measures taken to keep the human presence on the planet hidden failed. Perhaps, because they were extremely weakened by the war and are still focused on dealing with Earth, the Burzgash and Ayanamuz do not immediately bring their full power against this planet, but instead find people through which they will act. Ainarania began when the Ayanamuz made contact with a particular community and claimed to be the creators of all that is good and that the advanced civilization in the past, the Holy Empire, was built by their followers in accordance with their command after defeating the Burzghash and was destroyed from within by traitors who sabotaged the Empire’s final mission totally destroy the Burzgash. The Ayanamuz showed those people miraculous sign and gave extraordinary powers to those who proved their faith the most, making them clerics and other divine spellcasters. The people were commanded to rebuild the Holy Empire, spread the truth of the Ayanamuz, and fight the evil forces of the Burzghash, this time ensuring there are no disguised enemies among them. The story was recorded in a text called the “Atharamachan”, a Valarin word the meaning of which I forgot and the website where I found out seems to no longer exist. I started to write this out and almost finished it. It was while thinking of all of this when I first started using the name “Ayanamuz” and decided that Valarin would be their language.
At first, I decided Mirimanor would be a republic. It was previously ruled by a monarchical empire which was then overthrown more than a hundred years earlier and has since been regarded as evil and tyrannical by the public. The revolutionaries were inspired by myths of the Republic of Earth and they intended to recreate that aspect of it. In the present, Mirimanor has become corrupt and is effectively governed by businesses and guilds and other unaccountable elite institutions. The elites in control of these would be Burzghash cultists and are engaged in a similar, but far more subtle quest for domination as the Ainaranians. At first, I thought my games would focus on the conflict between Mirimanor and Ainarania, as the latter has expanded to the former’s borders and now demands that they accept the truth of the Ayananmuz. My first idea for a one-shot was that the group of players would be given a mission to hinder the Ainaranian invasion by sneaking a firebomb (a barrel of alchemist’s fire) into one of their forts. Their success in this would determine the course of events. However, I had much more ideas about Mirimanor and always thought it would be where the players would be primarily located. I gradually decided to focus on the domestic political conflicts of Mirimanor and the growing threat of Ainarania would be distant thing in the background. Obviously, these political conflicts would be inspired by the events of the present in the United States. Perhaps this could be the fantasy setting in which Part One and Part Two can take place in, but the purpose of doing that would be to distance the story from contemporary issues, not put them in a different setting.
I eventually had a more developed idea of regarding the founding of Mirimanor and the empire which previously ruled it. I had a brilliant idea for creating totally original and somewhat consistent names for the people who created the empire: randomly pressing letters on the keyboard and the adding and removing letters to make the resulting word pronounceable. I actually really like the results. This is how I decided these people would be called the “Kovaten”. When I wanted a name for the continent this setting would be centered on, I got “Ugatavab”. I decided “-ab” would mean “land” and would be suffixed to many place names. The Kovaten’s homeland would be Kovatenab. I never like the idea of fantasy cultures having a strong resemblance to real ones, but the Kovaten might be similar to the Mongols in their use of cavalry and in being semi-nomadic herdsmen. I was also thinking of the Klingons when I thought they would have a system of honor which holds strength, boldness, and combat skill as the greatest virtues. While they would be pragmatic in conducting war, they would also revere warriors who take great risks and challenge evenly matched or superior opponents. The Kovaten’s myth regarding the time before the settling of the planet would focus on the martial achievements of the Istarcanor and now the knights of the anti-empire. I gradually decided that the Kovaten would have the most accurate idea of the principles of the anti-empire. Their ideas of honor could include the principle of liabilitarianism that power may only be justly held by those who bear proportionate risk, as well as notions that it is no demonstration of strength to abuse and exploit the weak nor for a leader to send his loyal men into danger without facing it himself.
However, many of these ideals were largely forgotten and dismissed as being irrelevant to real war by the time the Kovaten were united king Zuidahu of the Bateguf dynasty who then began the conquest of lands outside of Kovatenab. His heirs continued the expansion with the most occurring under king Hagavat. His conquest was barely hindered until he attempted to invade the elvish nation of Larandamar (meaning “long ear home” in Quenya). The elves’ mastery of arcane magic allowed them to inflict massive losses and fight them to a stalemate.
Eventually, the elves would surrender, but only with highly favorable terms. Elf wizards would serve the Kovaten and teach their abilities to those who want to learn. This put those wizards in influential positions near the king. With this new power, Hagavat would be able to conquer even more. However, later kings would be less successful. Under king Gerfigeb, the expansion of the Kovaten empire stopped. The nation to the south, Zodazak (that name and others originating from there were created by randomly typing on the left side of the keyboard rather than the center as with Kovaten names.) successfully defended against Gerfigeb’s invasion. Unable to expand and ashamed by their defeat, the Kovaten’s violence turned inward. Previously, they had left their subjects alone to a large extent and were satisfied in being able to simply claim they had won against so many, but now they began to engage in various tyrannical abuses including violating the terms Hagavat had agreed to with the elves.
The house of Banivag had faithfully served the Bateguf kings in positions of highest authority since they first came to power, but now, Vibat, the lord of that house, sought a solution to the trouble the Kovaten now faced. He had been aware of the old Kovaten ideals and now realized how abandoning them lead to the present problem and the over-extension of the empire. No one would listen to him until he challenged king Gerfigeb to single combat in accordance with the Kovaten customs they still held. Gerfigeb refused, and declared that Vibat is a traitor. A war ensued between Gerfigeb, Vibat, and their respective supporters, of which Gerfigeb’s included all the discontent people throughout the empire. Vibat defeated and killed Gerfigeb and became the Kovaten king. Vibat oversaw the orderly dissolution of the empire and the restoration of most of the pre-conquest borders. Mirimanor would be an alliance of the territories formerly ruled by the Kovatens. At first, I referred to these as “provinces” in order to differentiate Mirimanor from the United States, but with this newer idea, “states” makes much more sense. The purpose of the alliance was to continue facilitate the trade among the states which had developed under the empire and also to provide a unified diplomatic front for dealing with Zodazak now that they are calling for revenge for the empire’s aggression.
However, in the present when my games would take place, there is a movement to truly unify Mirimanor under a republican government with a central bank and standing army. This would be driven by various crises including the threat posed by Ainarania. This is the Burzghash’s plan to take control of Mirimanor and then the rest of the planet. The greatest opposition to this will be among the Kovaten. Since the formation of Mirimanor, many Kovatens have abandoned their traditional ways and have adopted the mainstream elvish-influenced Mirimanorian culture. This includes king Vucravab Banivag who only objects to minor details in the proposal to unite Mirimanor. However, there is a faction of those who want a return to the old ways and leave Mirimanor, with some wanting to reconquer the states they formerly ruled. They may be aware of Kovaten traditions which tell of enemies who conquer with propaganda and money instead of violence and that strong and honorable warriors should be able to resist this. They would recognize that the union movement is an attempt to seize power by the merchants, bankers, and wizards. They would see the elves as their enemies as they would very often occupy these elite positions, and, of course, invented that last one. They would believe the empire began to fail when Hagavat accepted the elves terms of surrender and let them serve him in such important positions where they gave intentionally bad advice and may have used enchantment magic to manipulate the kings into acting for their ends, ultimately by driving Gerfigeb into a suicidal fight. The more radical among these Kovatens say that Vibat was a usurper and his heirs have continued to betray Kovatenab, and for that reason, they seek to restore the rule of house Bateguf.
I had some fantastical and rather absurd ideas about the Bateguf heir who would live at the time of my games. I thought he could be a player character and the player would decide personal details such as his name, but since this will never happen, I will just say his name is Volanaf. At first, the idea was that, not just Gerfigeb, but his entire family also fought to the death, perhaps under enchantment by wizards they thought were on their side, except for one of his children who secretly survived with the help of one wizard providing illusions who was aware of and opposed to the conspiracy. Indeed, it would not be surprising if a battle involving wizards, as well as lancers inflicting around 3d8+30 damage, on both sides does not leave identifiable remains. This one survivor would continue the Bateguf line in hiding. I later had the idea that the Bateguf survivor would be Gerfigeb’s daughter, named Ehtragef, who would have married Vibat’s oldest son and heir very soon before the hostilities began. She would be pregnant with his child and he would be killed in the battle. This way, Volanaf would have a claim to be the head of house Banivag. However, the obvious problem with this whole idea of a Bateguf heir living in secret and then revealing himself to the public when they did not know he existed and thought his family was dead is that there would be no way to prove he is descended from Gerfigeb. It would work just fine if Gerfigeb had an heir who is known to have survived and he simply fled, was exiled, or just forced into a much lower status. In any case, as a player character, Volanaf could choose to pursue a quest to become the king of Kovatenab and decide how to deal with the conflict they face.
After Vibat dissolved the empire, there was an official reconciliation between the Kovatens and the other states. It was undeniable that the leadership of Vibat and his heirs ensured the early stability and success of Mirimanor and they held that Gerfigeb had died with honor. However some people would always hate them. When the faction among the Kovatens opposes the unionists, their propagandists would foment this hate against that faction in order to divide them from Vucravab and those who have abandoned Kovaten traditions. The unionists might claim that the alliance has always favored the Kovatens and that a representative republic is needed to create an equitable arrangement among the states of Mirimanor, therefore those opposed to their efforts are not so different from those obviously delusional and evil Kovatens who want to reconquer their former territory. The way all this turns out would depend on the actions of the players and whom they side with. If the players side with the anti-unionist Kovatens, their success will require overcoming that hatred and find allies among the various peoples of Mirimanor, including the elves. If the truth that the Burzghash are behind the unionist agenda is exposed, it will also become clear that many of the elves at the top are actually drow in disguise. The other way the Kovatens could win is by seeking the aid of dark powers themselves.
If I had done a continuous campaign with the same players instead of just one-shots, the people who would have been the players most likely would not support the Kovatens and might side with the unionists, depending on how obvious I make the allegory to current and historical events. In that case, they would eventually see how evil the faction they support is. They would see how the unionists intend to achieve total domination and will use any amount of violence to do so when propaganda and deception is not enough. If the players gain their trust by doing their bidding, they will be inducted into the secret Burzghash cult, at which point turning back will be much more difficult.
Defeating both the unionists and Ainarania will partly require revealing the truth about what happened before Unatolev was settled, and thus destroying the narratives which justify their actions. My idea for how this would be possible was that, even after humans spread to other planets and would not go extinct if one of them is subject to disaster, there could be further measures to absolutely ensure that at least some remnant of human civilization survives no matter what. There could be ships carrying frozen samples of every species from Earth as well as records of all knowledge and anything else needed to quickly rebuild an Earth-like ecosystem and an advanced human civilization. These ships would travel as close as possible to speed of light, so that time passes far more slowly on the ship and their contents preserved for far longer. The ships would be sent in various directions to increase the chances at least one would end up in a safe place. Others would be put in close orbit around black holes, so that they would stay in one place while still moving at such high speed and so that the time dilation effect would be even greater. Some these ships could be summoned in a time of need, but others would be hidden with their paths never bringing them near any stars and cannot be commanded by anyone, so that no enemy would be able to access them either. Of course, these ones would probably need human crews in order for them to fulfill their purpose. In any case, the fleet which brought humanoids to Unatolev could have brought one of these ships and it allowed them to terraform the planet and create an Earth-like biosphere. Records the ship carried would be hidden in such a way that they could not be found until the measures taken to keep Unatolev hidden failed. The records could then be rediscovered and would inform people of how the threat they face can be fought.
The second one-shot I planned would determine how this happens. The players would be a team of thieves given a mission by an anonymous client to steal a dark gray rectangular box from the vault in a house owned by Lanyaro Mancarion an elf, wizard, and very important businessman. The players would be told that it is none of there concern what that box is. When they find it, it would be exactly as described, the dull box looking out of place among the treasures. When they look at it more closely, they would see that is covered in very subtle and intricate decorations and is made of a non-porous material not quite like anything they have seen before, except for one of my pre-made characters who might realize that it is similar to the handle of his ancient knife and that it is likely an artifact from before the settling of the planet. If the players spend enough time examining the, they might find that there is a button which allows the apparently seamless box to open to reveal that it is a book. The perfectly opaque pages are smoother, whiter, and thinner that any paper. They stick to fingers just enough to make them easy to turn. The small text is so small that it is difficult to read without a magnifying lens. To the people who have only seen primitive black-and-white photography which had been recently invented, the most amazing thing is the full-color high-resolution images, with many in the later pages depicting things so unlike anything they have seen before that they would not have the slightest idea of what they are looking at. The text is of a language none of them understand. Scholars would recognize that it is similar to the oldest known languages. I may have given one of the pre-made characters a Comprehend Languages spell. If this were used, they would be able to read that the book’s title is something like “The Memory of Earth’s Civilization”
They could continue to read to find that the book presents the complete history of humanity and how the Seoaisaoei have been a part of it, as understood by people in the time of Part Three. It would be a narrative totally coherent with their moral philosophy. Of course, the content of this book would not have the most recent events occurring when and soon before Unatolev was settled, unless the people at that time added to it. Indeed, they would need to revise the entire book because it was would have been written by people deceived by the Seoaisaoei remnants.
If a player chose the one psychic spellcaster, a spiritualist, from among my pre-made characters and used Detect Psychic significance on the book, he what would perceive would be far greater than anything else he had so examined. If he spent enough time doing this, he would find that the book is also a computer and interactive data storage device which can be operated by people with abilities like his allowing him to perceive even more information than what is on the pages, which would include the locations of more preserved ancient equipment, including the spaceships which brought humanoids to Unatolev. I thought that finding these could be the final part of the campaign and would allow the players to bring the fight directly to the Burzghash and Ayanamuz, as well as return to Earth.
This book is very powerful depending on who has it and whether they are able to make the information it contains public and whether it is used to inform those who are opposed to the Mirimanor unionists and Ainarania. This will be determined by what happens in the one-shot. I never decided exactly who it was who hired the player characters to steal the book, but I seem to remember thinking they were the good guys more than not. They were a secretive group who knew more about the truth of the past than anyone else and knew how important that book is and they would guide the player characters on the right path, if that is what they choose, in a real continuous campaign. One of the character sheets I made for this one-shot had the race listed as “elf”, but I would secretly inform the player who chose it that it is actually a drow in disguise and that, with that character, he might have an agenda different from the rest of the group’s and he can decide what that is because I did not. The obvious possibility is that he is an agent of the Burzghash cultists and is trying to steal the book for them, which would mean Lanyaro Mancarion is not one of them. One of the servants working in the house is an Ainaranian spy who will help the players steal the book if she finds out what they are doing, but will try to steal it from them after they escape the house with it. Mancarion might not know what the book is; he would be more interested in the other ancient artifacts found with it. If the players fail and are stopped before they can touch the book, it will be assumed that they were trying to steal those or any of the other many treasures in the vault. If they are caught after taking the book, then Mancarion’s attention will be drawn to it.
Later, I was told to make a pirate-themed one-shot for Talk Like a Pirate Day. The idea I had was that the players would be some kind of privateers or smugglers or some other crew of an independent ship based in Zodazak. The character I made who would be the captain of that ship was a catfolk, which raises the possibility that Zodazak is the homeland of catfolk. They would be paid, once again, by an anonymous client, to take their ship to a specified location and meet another ship there and ensure that it’s passengers arrive at Zodazak’s port. The players would be assured that they are unlikely to encounter any danger, but to arm them against the possibility, the client has also hired a Mirimanorian gun crew to join them and had their swiveling rifled 30-pounder(a fiend’s mouth cannon with extra range) temporarily installed on their ship. The leader of this gun crew would be one of the pre-made characters a player can choose. My entire purpose of this one-shot may have been to have a reason to create a character of the Siege Gunner archetype.
When they arrive at the location, they will find that the ship the were supposed to meet is Ainaranian and it is being pursued by two larger Ainaranian warships. This is a far more powerful enemy than the protagonist crew would expect and they would realistically flee, but that would mean there would be no game for the players, so they probably would not want to do that. Additionally, the gun crew leader would insist that the mission be completed, as he would know how important it is, and that his weapon is powerful enough to fight them. At this point it would be rather clear that the people they were supposed to escort are dissident Ainaranians attempting to escape and the players’ client is the leadership of Mirimanor’s defense hoping that these dissidents would be able to give them intelligence regarding the threat Ainarania poses. They secretly hired an independent ship so that the Ainaranians would not be further antagonized against them and the crew would be unable to reveal anything if captured. These fleeing dissidents might be the ones who originally discovered the ancient book or were the ones who studied it after it was found and, by doing so, saw the lies of the Ayanamuz. They brought the book with them during their escape. The Mirimanorian agents the players would deliver them to would include Burzghash cultists who would steal the book and have it smuggled on a merchant ship owned by Lanyaro Mancarion’s company. Communication difficulties resulting from the need for secrecy, as well as Mancarion’s hesitancy in cooperating with these people he does not entirely trust resulted in him keeping the book in his vault without knowing what it is.
More thoughts on fitting Pathfinder content into the worldbuilding
While I thought mithril might just be titanium, I decided that the many of the other fantasy materials in Pathfinder could have been used to build the spaceships which brought humanoids to the planet, as well as those used by the enemies who pursued them. Fragments of the ships destroyed in the battle would be scattered across the planet with more falling from space all the time as their orbits decay. Adamantine would what the main structure and armor of the spaceships were made of. While the rules for damaging objects say it has a finite hardness and hitpoints and can be broken if enough damage is inflicted, I imagined that adamantine, having been created by extremely advanced civilizations with knowledge of the fundamental nature of reality, would be nearly indestructible by normal means. It is chemically inert. It cannot be bent or broken by any force, nor affected by any amount of heat. I had additional ideas which would probably make it unsuited for many uses. It would be an exotic form of matter not made of atoms. It would be a perfect insulator of electricity and a perfect conductor of heat. For some reason, I mistakenly remembered reading in the description that adamantine is a black metal. With my idea here, adamantine is obviously not a metal (although, it seems reasonable to think it is derived from iron because Pathfinder rules seem to say it has the same weight), but this gave me the idea that it would be perfectly reflective, but the material itself would imperceptible to the mind and would somehow also appear totally black. This way, hostile Samatiri would not be able to make contact with things made of it. Looking at the special materials in Pathfinder now, it seems there is something like this called Druchite.
While the application of energy does not affect adamantine, there would obviously have been ways to to damage it if the ships were destroyed and broken into fragments. The weapons used in the time of Part Three would be reality-warping devices which were operated by powerful Samatiri and inflict spiritual and metaphysical effects. In the intense battle which occurred before the planet was settled, the protagonists may have done something even more extraordinary to destroy the superior enemy. This left some kind of residual effect in the space around the star system; under the right conditions, a person speaking certain words or making certain movements will cause otherwise impossible events to occur. At first, people would do this accidentally and the effects would be barely perceptible, but some of those who notice them would experiment and eventually discover how to create useful effects. This was my explanation for how arcane magic came to be in this setting. This is how adamantine can be worked into useful shapes. Because it would not be very good for weapons and armor if hostile wizards could just manipulate the material and because I did not want to homebrew spells, I decided that the process might take hours or days and require multiple spellcasters and craftsmen to work together. One of the powerful items the players would have a chance to acquire and use is the set of adamantine plate armor king Hagavat had made for himself by the wizards newly brought into his service.
Psychic magic is Sanwe-latya. Some of my ideas of what Sanwe-latya can accomplish came from reading about psychic magic in Pathfinder. I did not have the idea that it would be possible for Samatiri to interact with inanimate objects until I read about the occultist class, as well as the level-0 Detect Psychic Significance spell. I thought this spell would be the act of making mental contact with objects. As I have explained previously, the most powerful Samatiri with powers far beyond what any Pathfinder character would have, such as the Seoaisaoei remnants, would eventually be able to make contact with people on Unatolev and give small fractions of that power to the people who strengthen the connection by doing what is seen as practicing a religion worshiping that being. This would be the explanation for divine magic.
Ainaranian clerics would be of the War and Law domains. The favored weapon of their religion is the one-handed “longsword”. The particular design is what they believe the Sword of the Republic, or rather the sword used by the first holy emperor and blessed by the Ayanamuz, looked like. It consists of straight lines like many Ainaranian designs, symbolizing the orderly perfection of the Ayanamuz. However, when the Sword of the Republic is discovered it will be seen that, while it is straight and double-edged, the perfection of its design consisting of flowing lines and a curving taper is far more subtle.
Burzghash cultists would include clerics of the Elder Mythos Cultist archetype and have the domains associated with that. Of all the Great Old One deities listed in Pathfinder, I thought Hastur, whose areas of concern are “decadence, disorder, nihilism”, would be the best to represent the Burzghash. Its favored weapon is the rapier, which I thought would be the weapon often carried by Mirimanorian urbanites. Attempting to imagine an original fantasy weapon, I thought the Mirimanorian rapier could have a recurve blade, perhaps based on elvish designs. I thought this could be a realistically functional sword which would be good for both slashing and thrusting.
The alignment system is quite important in Pathfinder, but was not sure how it would work in my setting, especially since it is part of my story and is meant to represent my views. There would be lawful evil and chaotic evil, represented by the forces ruling Ainarania and Mirimanor, but true good would be neither lawful nor chaotic. The Ayanamuz, Burzghash, and their humanoid servants in Ainarania and Mirimanor would not want to appear evil and would not see themselves as such.
The lesser Burzghash and Ayanamuz could be represented by the extraplanar beings which can be summoned by spellcasters and would not only be the evil ones. While I could just decide that evil outsiders do not appear as monstrous as their descriptions say, I thought Burzghash could be represented by Azatas and Proteans in addition to Demons, Qlippoths and Lovecraftian creatures. Ayanamuz could be represented by Archons and Axiomites in addition to Devils and Kytons. The unionist movement which the Burzghash cultists are behind would have its message that it is needed for the continued success and security of Mirimanor and equitable governance for all its people. While Ainarania appears aggressive and tyrannical to those on the outside, the people there are generally content and free from the kinds of societal problems plaguing Mirimanor, meaning one could reasonably see them as the right side of the conflict. Additionally, any Ainaranian will enthusiastically debate the players on the truth of their religion when prompted, saying that nothing can be objectively good without a divine authority to define it as such and there is nothing has come nearly as close to proving itself to be that authority as the Ayanamuz. Only the perfectly coherent philosophy on which the Republic of Earth was built on can provide a counterargument.
An obvious sign indicating that the elites of both Mirimanor and Ainarania are both evil despite all other appearances is their creation and use of undead. While, I have often thought about subverting fantasy and science-fiction tropes, I decided that undead being evil would not be one of them, in part because that is because of the alignment system and Pathfinder. The creation of undead is evil in the most fundamental ways far deeper than just disgust. As with all powers possessed by Ainaranian clerics, the ability to create undead would be given by the Ayanamuz and they would be instruments of their divine will. It would be a way for the faithful to continue to serve after death as expendable soldiers and unskilled laborers, such as the oarsmen on the ships the players would have encountered in that one-shot.
Mirimanorian wizards have made the sale of undead servants into a profitable industry. The conflict in Mirimanor being inspired by the events of the present, I have thought about how the various culture war issues occurring now could exist in this setting, while also not wanting it to be so obvious. The legality and acceptance of creating undead could be one issue which is not like one in the present. Many people would be horrified by the idea of undead, but the Burzghash cult will work to normalize it, their propagandists saying that it is only superstition and sanitary concerns which cause this revulsion. The latter of which is solved by the best practices of the necromancers and alchemists which ensure the undead creations are safe and do not appear disgusting. At first, there would only be undead animals such as horses, but as this becomes accepted, they would normalize this practice with humanoid corpses. In addition to the profit received from the sales, this is part of the Burzghash cult’s plan to get people to accept the while also distributing undead minions across Mirimanor which their wizards can take control of.
The purpose of fitting Pathfinder content into my worldbuilding is to make all character options available to players. It is unlikely that players would be Ainaranians or Burzghash cultists, so the problem is how a player could be a cleric or other divine spellcasters which is not one of those two and would probably want to choose domains other than the ones those would have access to. There would need to be some explanation for how they gain their powers. The need for a variety of deities made me think think that there could be many beings which achieved power similar to the Seoaisaoei they could have different agendas. They could include those few characters from Parts One and Two who did that, even though I had thought they would live as mortals after Unatolev was settled. Some of these deities might be aligned with the Burzghash or the Ayanamuz, while others have had nothing to do with any of the events I have explained previously. More specific details could be decided based on the kind of character a player wants. In any case, it would probably be more difficult for a player to be a divine spellcaster than other classes because of the need to fit his deity in the setting and the importance I would place on the player obeying the deity. A paladin or good-aligned cleric would be very powerful in this setting because of their abilities against undead and it might be even more difficult for a player to be one. Their patrons could be the small group of Seoaisaoei who both kept their sanity and did not try to forget what they had discovered, well as those characters from the earlier parts. These divine spellcasters would probably not be part of such powerful organizations as the Burzghash cult or the Ainaranian state due to their patron’s more limited reach and preoccupation with the direct threat of their enemies. To a large extent, the humanoids on Unatolev must face the evil forces on their own, or perhaps, they must rely on the one true God.
There is also the matter of druids. Their spells are considered divine, but they do not serve specific deity. I never had any idea that there would be a way for people to gain extraordinary powers by protecting the natural environment or whatever druids are supposed to be. It seemed like there was no way to fit this in with my previous ideas for magic and metaphysics, although I might have some ideas thinking about it now. I also have never been interested in creating druid characters. However, they are one of the core classes and is one a player should expect to be able to choose. When trying to decide how they would fit in the setting, I thought, in Mirimanor, they would be a contrast to the urban wizards, meaning, they could be associated with the Kovaten. I had previously thought that the monsters players would encounter would be mundane animals like dire wolves because the magical and mythical ones would be hard to fit in the setting. The Kovaten might come to revere those and other predatory animals as exemplifying martial virtue. Some would go to great lengths in imitating them such that they gained the ability to change their bodies into them. With this explanation, it would make more sense for them to have the Shifter class rather than Druid, but maybe they later discovered how to gain powers other than wild shape. Perhaps this would be done by women those who are too old for combat. Of course, the lack of differences between the sexes in the rules is another issue I have thought about resolving.
The power of druids could have been what allowed the Kovaten could match the power of the elves and their wizards. Those who are familiar with games like Pathfinder know that an often-discussed problem is spellcasters become far more powerful than non-spellcasters, especially at high levels. While most NPCs would be less than level 5, I still wanted some explanation for how the Kovaten won.
The rest of what I say here is not as relevant to the overall story and I recommend not reading it unless you are interested in how I would create this Pathfinder setting. I wanted the Gunslinger class and archetypes with similar abilities to be available to players, so firearms should exist in this setting. The problem is that I wanted them to somehow be both uncommonly used, but very accessible. I was not sure I like the rules for firearms in Pathfinder and I also just wanted a setting where medieval weapons are mostly used as opposed to the earlier parts of the story. At the same time, I wanted advanced firearms such as revolvers to exist. I wanted to give one of the pre-made characters in the first one-shot, an Arcanist, a pistol as a back-up weapon, because I thought it would be interesting and unexpected for the players, but I realized there is not much advantage in using a pistol without a Gunslinger’s abilities, because of the reload time, so a revolver would be better. If these exist, I thought firearms would need to been around for a while and needed an explanation why so few people would use them.
My idea was that recipe of gunpowder would be a secret and its production would be monopolized by the Alchemists’ Guild in Mirimanor. As a result, gunpowder is very expensive for anyone who has not been given permission to buy it at normal prices, such as the gun crew in that one one-shot. In my games, the cost of firearms and bullets could be 10% of the listed cost and they could be simple weapons as in the “Guns Everywhere” rules, but the prices of gunpowder and cartridges would be the ones listed for those with permission and much higher for everyone else. Thinking about it now, it would be very difficult to keep this kind of secret. Perhaps every state in the Mirimanor alliance agreed to enforce the monopoly and forbid revealing the secret because they feared how powerful gunpowder would be and did not want foreign powers to have it, nor did they want any Mirimanorian state to become too powerful. Of course, the Alchemists’ Guilds lobbying played a part in them reaching this decision. This could be one of the early parts of the process of forming a centralized cronyist government in Mirimanor. The Guild will, of course, supply the musket-armed regular army raised the unified Mirimanor republic. Literally “raised” in the case of the many undead units. Because of the lack of good-aligned divine spellcasters, I thought their typical role as healers could be filled by the Chirugeon Alchemist archetype. To the extent that the events in this setting are allegorical to the present, the Alchemists’ Guild represents both the military-industrial complex and big pharma.
While I have since learned that the first revolver was made in the 16th century, the idea that they could exist in my setting, gave me the idea that various 19th century technologies could exist. While reading the rules for ships and naval combat, it seemed very easy to homebrew rules for steam-powered ironclad warships. I thought the possibilities created by arcane magic and alchemy, as well as the skill and intelligence needed for them, might aid the development of technologies, such as photography. However, I still wanted the setting to have an overall late medieval or Renaissance appearance, most would not be in common use for various reasons, not the least of which is the Mirimanor elites’ preference that anything which could make their enemies more powerful be denied to them. Just as in the present when most technological development is in computing, it could be that media technologies, such as printing, photography, phonography, and telegraphy are prevalent in Mirimanor and used by the forces of evil to spread their propaganda, but things which would lead to real industrialization are just curiosities. Whether this changes and who best uses the new technologies to their advantage depends on the actions of the players.
An issue related to all this is where energy would come from. I thought that fossil fuels could not exist on a planet which had no life on it before a few thousand years ago, but I have read that some petroleum has an abiotic origin. In any case, magic obviously creates energy. While there may be difficulty in figuring out what the actual physical effect of a spell is based on what the effect is in terms of the rules, if it is possible to enchant a weapon so that it inflicts fire damage and that never runs out, then it should be possible to create a heat source for a steam engine. Likewise, the ability to create weapons which inflict frost damage seems like it should make refrigeration possible. Considering all the possibilities raised by the kinds of magic in Pathfinder now makes me realize I forgot to mention that I had originally wanted spellcasters to be very uncommon so as to avoid these issues somewhat.
Previously, I could not find a good place to show the maps I have made for this setting. When thought it would take place on Earth, I had the idea that the planet would be in an ice age and the Equator would be the only temperate region and Ainarania and Mirimanor would be on the west coast of Africa. I drew this region in Inkarnate and when I decided the setting would not be Earth, I drew that region as part of a continent which the Kovaten would name “Ugatavab”. The rest of the continent I drew was much more interesting than that one region, so I decided the center of events would be elsewhere. The states of Mirimanor would be on the eastern side of the northern end of that large gulf in the east of the continent, while Ainarania would be on western side. I later had the idea that the Ainaranians originally came from the other side of the desert in the center. For some reason they, fled into the desert where the Ayanamuz made contact with them and told them that whatever destroyed their home, I thought it could be a volcanic eruption, was a divine punishment for their sinful ways, or rather it was inflicted by the Burzghash because they failed to receive the protection of the Ayanamuz. In order to receive redemption, they must travel east and bring to truth of the Ayanamuz to those lands.
I later wanted a map of the entire planet. I found a site for turning a flat equirectangular map into a globe, but I did not want the distances shown by the grid to change. Also, those distances are huge; the continent is bigger than Asia. I decided to abandon the map I drew and used that site to generate a new map which I then edited. I found a series of videos about figuring out tectonic plates and climate zones on fictional maps and used those for mine, but I have since heard that those videos are not entirely correct. I chose one of the continents, which happens to have a similar gulf on this new map to be Ugatavab. I cut out a map of just Ugatavab and added details and smoothed out some of the pixelation. The borders of Mirimanor are light blue and the those of Ainarania are purple on all of these maps. Those would be their favored colors as they each misremember the blue of the Republic of Earth. From the map of Ugatavab, I cut out a map of just Mirimanor and randomly drew the borders of the states. Looking at it now, the location of Kovatenab does not make sense, unless there were some kind of natural barrier stopping them from expanding northwest, unless those territories just did not join Mirimanor. The capital of Mirimanor, where the representatives of the states would meet and where the union government would be seated, would be at the confluence of the visible rivers on the map. When was using the earlier map, on which I drew the borders of eight states in Mirimanor, rather than seventeen as in the new one, and still thought it would be a unified republic in the beginning, the name I chose for this city was Toltominos, which consists of the Quenya words for “eight” and what I thought was “one”, but is actually “first”, the idea being that it is the place where eight becomes one. I looked at the plate and climate maps for a desert a place where a volcano could be, I decided the Ainaranians could have come from the continent to the southeast and them crossing the strait could be when the tension begins.
Obviously, this map is nearly empty beyond Ainarania and Mirimanor. Every society on Ugatavab and the continent east of it could have some involvement with Ainarania and Mirimanor, but deciding the details of those and of what is happening on the rest of the planet would be difficult. Perhaps a starting place would be to look at the Pathfinder content which is specific to the campaign setting of Golarion and deciding where those things could exist on Unatolev with different names. I initially thought Mirimanor could be like Andoran or Galt and Ainarania could be like Cheliax, but I never had any more specific idea other than hellknights in Ainarania. As long as the rest of the map is not filled, then I might be fine with abandoning this map if I can create a better one again. One thing which needs to be considered when doing that is what a planet which had no oceans or Earth-like atmosphere, and therefore no erosion, before a few thousand years ago. Perhaps the map I have is good in this regard as the coastlines are a bit more jagged than those of Earth.
Thinking about what other places should be like, I realize that one thing which distinguishes both Ainarania and Mirimanor is that they are both multiracial. When I initially imagined that the players could be from either I wanted all character creation options to be available to them, so I wanted all core races to exist in the places where they would originate. I wrote down the percentages of each race in both places, so that if I needed to create an NPC and it does not matter what race it is, thought I could roll two ten-sided dice and decide the character’s race by which range the result falls in. Mirimanor would have more elves and halflings than dwarves and gnomes, respectively, and Ainarania would be the opposite. This way, the races of the characters in each of those places are more likely to be suited to the classes they likely have. I decided all this early on when I still thought the setting would be on Earth. While Ainarania would assimilate the various people, my new idea of Mirimanor is less homogeneous than what I may have initially imagined and each state would have a distinct population. The percentages I wrote would only be true in regard to certain cities.
I wanted goblins and orcs to be playable races and not inherently monstrous because of their interesting traits. Goblins can have huge stealth bonuses. The Kovatens mistreated them more than other people they conquered because they saw goblins as cowardly and dishonorable because of their brutal guerrilla tactics which they used again during the rebellion against Gerfigeb. Vibat forced an end to the hostilities between goblins and the Kovaten, but they never stopped hating each other, meaning the goblins are likely to side against the Kovatens in the current conflict, but they might also distrust the unionists.
My initial idea for orcs is that they were brutally conquered by the Ainaranians, perhaps because they resisted the most violently, and now they are thoroughly indoctrinated and trained into total obedience from birth until they are until they are unable to think of anything other than serving the Ayanamuz. They would be used as shock soldiers who inflict massive damage with two-handed weapons. They would have the Barbarian class and Armored Hulk archetype and their rage ability results from being possessed by the influence of the Ayanamuz. The Barbarian’s rage is clearly a magical supernatural ability and I needed to decide where that comes from. This and other abilities of the Barbarian class do not seem to necessarily indicate what one might think of as a “barbarian” and they can easily be reflavored. Dungeons and Dragons Fifth edition has the Zealot subclass, but there is no divine Barbarian in Pathfinder. However, in my setting, I might say that the Barbarian class is defined by a rage ability resulting from the possession of some kind of spirit, not necessarily by being uncivilized. I once guessed that the rage ability was inspired by Viking Berserkers and reading about them now, this spiritual possession idea seems to make sense.
I have had some more thoughts about orcs since then. I once thought it would be funny to create an orc character based on Shrek, giving me the idea that orc live are extremely reclusive and live in swamps and other places no one else wants to be in and might often have domesticated donkeys. Thinking about the origin of orcs as unthinking slaves of the Seoaisaei, gave me the idea that there were some still in use by the hostile Seoaisaei remnants in the time of Part Three and the free humanoids sought to harm them in a small way by turning the orcs against them. Samatiri severed them from the Seoaisaei’s control and instilled in the an extreme desire for freedom and fear of being ruled which remained in those who ended up on Unatolev. They would live in isolated places and attack anyone who enters with slings, thrown weapons and Orcish Hornbows, which have the same damage dice as a greatsword. All of these are ranged weapons the damage of which the user adds his strength modifier to and are, therefore very powerful in the hands of orcs, but not as powerful as two-handed melee weapons they would use against intruders who persist past the ranged attacks. These free orcs would not allow themselves to be possessed by spirits and would not have the Barbarian class, despite being barbaric. The Kovatens tried to conquer the orcs, but in addition to fighting them off, the orcs earned the Kovatens’ respect.
The Ainaranians, however, did not give up when conquering the orcs in the lands they entered. They may have barely needed to fight the orcs because the Ayanamuz would have informed the Ainaranians how to command the them and cure them of the madness inflicted on them by the forces of evil and return them to their divinely ordained place as servants of the Ayanamuz. At the same time, Mirimanorian merchants attempt to open to trade with the orcs the Kovatens once tried to conquer, and thus expose them to the Burzghash. It is not so easy for them to resist the benefits of civilization.
I had always imagined that the drow would secretly live underground as they are normally supposed to in Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. They would infiltrate elvish society while disguised by the Ancestral Regression spell made permanent with the Permanency spell. Their ancestors served the Seoaisaoei remnants the free humanoids fought before the settling of Unatolev and managed to survive and hide. Now, I think it could also be possible that elves who contacted the Burzghash were changed into drow without their appearance changing or gaining darkvision and light sensitivity. With dwarves being more prevalent in Ainarania, a situation similar to either of these could have happened with duergar. The latter seems more likely with dwarves, while the both at the same time are possible with the elves.
There is also the matter of where all the homelands of all the races are and how they ended up there. I started to create a map showing the landing sites of each race’s ships, but there would also have been migration since then.
There is a very large amount of Pathfinder content which could be used to develop more ideas for the setting, but this all I can think of for now. I might add more thoughts later.